Natural product biosynthesis by guanidine prenyltransferases in plants and bacteria.
Kolling, D., Konzok, K., Taser, D., Jentsch, T., Schwoerer, S., Struwe, H., Bultemeier, A., Freiberg, J., Witte, C.P., Franke, J., Luzhetskyy, A., Kirschning, A., Rudorf, S., Koehnke, J.(2026) Science 394: 413-418
- PubMed: 42912132 Search on PubMed
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aeg1821
- Primary Citation Related Structures: 
31KA, 9TGV, 9TGX, 9TGZ, 9TH3 - PubMed Abstract: 
Guanidine exists almost exclusively as a resonance-stabilized cation, making its direct enzymatic functionalization challenging. We identified the cyanobacterial enzyme NosH, which catalyzes direct prenyl transfer to free guanidine. Structural and mechanistic analyses revealed guanidine activation by a two-aspartate clamp coupled to prenyl-donor binding through a distinct catalytic architecture. Guided by these features, we identified a large family of guanidine prenyltransferases across bacteria and plants. Plant enzymes produced guanidine alkaloids such as galegine in vitro and heterologous expression of a plant ortholog in Nicotiana benthamiana produced galegine in planta, providing a direct enzymatic link to plant-specialized metabolism.
- Institute of Food Chemistry, Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
Organizational Affiliation: 

